The annual event transforms Daley Plaza in Chicago’s downtown into a European-style open street market. Food vendors are mixed with dozens of temporary shops that sell wooden toys, Christmas tree ornaments and festive mittens and knit caps.
Schnitzel, strudel and Santa playing the saxophone
Dec. 8, 2012Having Alaska license plates is a great way to meet neighbors
Dec. 8, 2012We moved to Palos Heights five months ago today. I drove my family along the Calumet-Saganashkee Channel, otherwise known as the Cal Sag, late on a Friday afternoon. I drove slowly so I could take in the sights, something I hadn’t done much for the previous 4,000 miles.
When you leave Alaska, you drive all day just to leave the state. Then you drive another whole day just to leave the Yukon Territory.
What is the value of a long life?
Dec. 6, 2012
A recent New York Times Magazine article celebrated the long lives of the inhabitants of Ikaria, a Greek island 30 miles off the western coast of Turkey. According writer Dan Buettner, Ikarians regularly live healthy, active, productive lives well into their 90s. Ikarians reach the age of 90 at two and a half times the rate that Americans do. Moreover, it is an ordinary thing to see individuals living vitally to a 100 years of age. As one islander put it, “We just forget to die!”
There is no one reason why so many Ikarians live to ripe-old-age, according to Buettner, but there are a whole series of factors that clearly have an impact on local longevity. Besides perfect weather and a pure water source, the island's chief assets are its isolation and dietary habits. According to Dr. Leriadis, an island physician, people on Ikaria don’t live by a clock. They stay up late, wake up late, and always take naps. And, the basic Ikarian diet is made up of fruits, vegetables, nuts, olive oil, coffee and wine.
Dave Brubeck dies at 91
Dec. 5, 2012Dave Brubeck is one of those musicians who, it turns out, never intended to make music. Brubeck came from a California ranch family, and that’s how he planned to spend his days; herding cattle. Instead, the head of the zoology department at the college that Brubeck was attending as a veterinary science student told him, “stop wasting my time and yours”. So Brubeck followed in his mother’s footsteps - she played piano and had hoped to become a concert pianist.
Unlike his mother though, Brubeck couldn’t read music. It didn’t matter; he excelled and was soon playing piano for the Red Cross during World War II. Brubeck was so good, in fact, that he was ordered to form a band.
Fame came early in Brubeck’s career. He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine in 1954 and was only the second jazz artist to appear on the front of the magazine.
Booze in the news
Dec. 4, 2012
The bars of Division Street: where a man named Vanecko hit a man name Koschman. And in a Northwest Side bar, a policeman named Abbate beat a bartender named Karolina Obrycka.Sorrowful, both, but the city has a rich and lengthy tradition of booze and taverns. It can be traced to early settler Marc Beaubien, who would enliven his Sauganash Inn with fine fiddle-playing in the 1830s. Ever since, the tavern has functioned as an important social focal point, though few have been willing to admit — or understand — its significance as a culturally enriching agent.
In Drink: A Social History of America, Andrew Barr writes about taverns in the early years of this century: "In a saloon every man was equal. The saloon provided newspapers, billiards, card tables, bowling alleys, lavatories and washing facilities. It provided information and company."
Chicago was never thirstier than a few minutes before 4:32 p.m. on December 5, 1933, as thousands waited for the repeal of the 18th Amendment to end a drought that had lasted — but who was counting?
A maple leaf mystery
Dec. 3, 2012As WBEZ special investigations editor, Cate Cahan has doggedly pursued some of Illinois' most intractable issues. But earlier this week Cahan ran up against a real head-scratcher that hit close to home. Literally – the case in question began under a tree in her backyard.
And so Cahan arrived at the office on Monday with what she thought might be a telling piece of evidence: a seemingly once-beautiful maple leaf covered in pitch-black spots the size of quarters.
“It looks like it got burned,” said one WBEZ reporter. “It looks sick,” said another.
It was a disturbing sight, indeed.
Between low water levels, extreme drought, and the fact that it reached nearly 70 degrees on December 3, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine that some environmental funny business might be behind the splotchy-leaf dragnet of 2012. Plus, Cahan recently experienced the loss of most of her garden to what she described as an oozing, yellow mold.
Mel Reynold's run and the purpose of the ballot
Dec. 3, 2012
With the resignation of Jesse Jackson Jr. from his seat in the 2nd Congressional District, a growing number of potential candidates are lining up to take his place. It seems that each day the field gets a little larger. And unquestionably, one of the most surprising candidates to throw his hat in the ring is the person Rep. Jackson originally defeated to win the seat in 1995: Mel Reynolds.
In 1992 the young, photogenic Reynolds defeated the then controversial Gus Savage, who had for 12 years run the district as a personal fiefdom. Two years after Reynolds won the seat he was convicted of a series of sexual crimes with a minor; he was also convicted on federal financial and campaign fraud charges.
Now Reynolds wants back in. He says he wants another chance to do the job right. His campaign slogan is straight forward and right on point: Redemption. Reynolds argues that he’s done the crime, he’s done his time, and now it’s time to move on. He maintains that he has the education, talent and experience to do the job.
Bigger not necessarily better for Big Bird
Nov. 30, 2012For most of us, Big Bird is about as big as it gets when it comes to our feathered friends.
But for Peter Makovicky of the Field Museum, Big Bird is small stuff.
Makovicky is the Curator of Dinosaurs and Chair of the Department of Geology at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. He’s spent the last few years researching giant bird-like dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, called theropods. You might know them from Jurassic Park or elementary school coloring books. T-Rex and the infamous velociraptor are both theropods. And in case you missed the memo, scientists now believe theropods had feathers. (Jurassic Park IV, anyone?)
A couple years ago Makovicky and Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University did a study showing that many theropods are actually vegetarians.